Happy (official) beginning of summer, everybody!

Well, like I promised in May’s post, as of 6/2, there’s a new work by yours truly out on digital shelves at last! “Mother Country”, the latest short story set in the universe of my Alternate History novella “Divided Worlds: An Alternate Space Race”, is centered on Lucas Gidney, an Anglo-Indian college student in an India where Partition was only just avoided. Recruited by the Diplomatic Service for an apparently boring, harmless task–swapping documents with a professor in New Delhi–he soon finds himself caught up in the factionalism and intrigue constantly simmering beneath the Indian Federation’s apparent stability…and around a secret endeavor that could make his “mother country” a true superpower. Check out and pass along the link here, and have a look at the other stories in the “Divided Worlds” collection as well!

With this release, my annual of New Year’s resolution of “at least 1 published story a year” is satisfied–but as usual, I won’t be stopping there . The two main contenders for the next to claim this status are my AH work “All Quiet in Calais” (just back from its first beta reading) and the next work in my “Marshal Lawrence” Civil War Historical Fiction series (presently at the first draft stage, but expected to be done by end of July). The hope for quantity will never replace the aim for quality, so I’ll be thrilled if either (or both) can stand beside “Mother Country” on the podium before the year’s out, so long as they do so in top form.

Main focus at the moment is the Lawrence draft (tentative title: “An Incident on the Holston River”), with continuing side work on another AH draft for a “Space Race”-themed anthology at Sea Lion Press. The Outside World is weighing in with work and an apartment move (over the Fourth holiday, to boot), so it’s anyone’s guess how progress on either will go, but my (flexible) deadline for the first story is still likely to be met. The last month of summer will probably be chill by comparison (if not necessarily temp-wise, I’m sure); the season is meant for vacation, after all, even for writers!

That’s everything I’ve got for right now. Have a great start to your vacation(s), and see you all again in July!